First, an apology: the lighting in many of these shots are terrible – but as we had been awake for roughly 20 hours I was far too lazy to retake them. The room itself was amazing; we were upgraded from a studio to a two-bedroom suite (a nice surprise!) and had a hot-tub on the balcony. Talk about relaxing!

The Room

Kitchen and Dining Area

Living Room

“Human Sized Dog Bed”

Hot tub!

Guest Bathroom

Guest Bathroom

Guest Bedroom

Guest Bedroom

Master Bedroom

Master Bathroom

In-Unit Washer/Dryer

In case you forget something…

So many products!

Thankfully, my girlfriend managed to snag some shots in the morning.

Hot tub

The “Dog Bed”

Check out that view!

Living room area

Dining room and kitchen

Guest bedroom

More of the guest bedroom

More of the guest bedroom

The Property

Exploring the property took a fair amount of time given how spread out things were, but we were given a map which helped. The views were spectacular. Though a timeshare was not in my immediate future, I could definitely see myself coming back. Multiple pools, a small convenience store, and some excellent restaurant options makes this an excellent choice.

Property Map

Lobby Artwork

Open-Air Lobby

Concierge

Morning View

Breakfast View

Walking around the property

Concierge/Front Desk from below

The rooms

One of the restaurants on the property has a pool-side bar and will bring food to your lounge chair! I opted for the Acapulco style ceviche (with huge chunks of octopus, shrimp, and fish), while my girlfriend had the fried calamari. Thoroughly delicious.

Fried calamariAcapulco style ceviche

El Ciruelo

For our last night in Cabo, we opted to have dinner at El Ciruelo – a restaurant at the top of a neighboring hill. Though technically part of the “Baja Point” property, it is becoming a part of the Westin resort in the very near future. Since the start of the incline is rather steep and it was already dark, we caught a ride in a golf-cart on both the way up and down. I won’t bore you with the details, and leave you to drool over our dinner. Enjoy!

Yucca and sunflower seed paste with yucca and sweet potato chips

Wheat roll with herbed butter

Sea bass amuse-bouche

Guava sorbet!

Sea bass with mushroom risotto

Creamy spinach

Green beans, asparagus, and “flap meat”

Churros!

Closing Thoughts

Though I didn’t take advantage of the timeshare offer, I can definitely see myself returning in the future. Between the weather, location, and the options for activities and dining, it’s a spectacular option for staying in Cabo.

Before we knew it, it was time for us to return home – vacations are never long enough! We had arranged for round-trip shuttle service between the airport and our hotel, so we were promptly picked up and deposited at the airport. Though our driver insisted that we needed to leave the hotel by 4:30 AM, we found that the airport counters and security are not open until 5:00 AM. Adding to the fun: most stores and restaurants are closed until 6 or later, depending on the store.

Our initial flight from SJD to MEX was fairly uneventful. We were once again on a regional jet operated by Aeromexico Connect, and we were asked to not use headphones until we reached 10,000 feet. Another interesting quirk: Aeromexico doesn’t serve alcohol before 11:00 AM local time, but all alcohol is complimentary after 11:00 AM.

While taxiing, my girlfriend was able to snap a few gorgeous shots of planes, including a Boeing 727 used by the Polícia Federal! We quite a few Dreamliners, as well as a plane with livery I couldn’t recognize in the least… it almost looks like a funky Alitalia color scheme. If you can figure out who’s flying this plane, let me know!

Boeing 727

Dreamliners!

Mystery plane!

Military craft

Aeromexico Salon Premier

Instead of the Heineken sponsored lounge that we visited during our first time through MEX, we opted to grab some caffeine and libations at one of the larger Salon Premier lounges.

This lounge is one of three that are located in the mezzanine – to reach it you have to either take the elevator or climb the stairs near security. The lounge itself was quite spacious with two circular bars that served alcohol as well as coffee and tea. There was plenty of seating available with easy access to power outlets. Tucked away in the furthest corner were coolers for self-serve beer, water, and juice as well as a few snacks.

Lounge entry

Bars – one of two

Self-serve juice and beer

Light snacks and ice

MEX-ATL

Probably the most frustrating part of the return was the experience while waiting to board the flight from Mexico City to Atlanta. A Delta representative let us know that we would need to get freshly printed boarding passes from Delta (our Aeromexico boarding passes would not allow us to board). Getting new boarding passes took nearly 15 minutes even though there was nobody in line before me, simply because the gate agents were talking to each other instead of paying attention to passengers – thoroughly disappointing.

Once we had received our new boarding passes, we got to experience the new TSA security measures for US-bound flights. While I understand the premise of asking the same question multiple times to ensure that you get the same answer, I tend to find this works best when the question isn’t immediately repeated. For example, I was asked how long I had stayed in Mexico three times… one right after another.

The remaining of the boarding process was fairly uneventful, but shortly after approaching the runway, we were turning back to the gate. There it was: the dreaded maintenance delay. Thankfully, we had planned for a 3 hour layover in Atlanta, so we made it to our connection with 10 minutes to spare (sans dinner).

Finally on our way, we were given physical menus to select our lunches from. I opted for the arroz con pollo while my girlfriend opted for the pasta. The chicken was slightly drier than the flight to Mexico, but the rice (really a pearl couscous) was quite good. The charcuterie plate was probably my favorite part of the meal, though.

The Offer

A few months ago, I received an invitation to visit Westin’s newly renovated resort property in Los Cabos. Given the price of the stay, I had a hard time saying no! I knew that this was going to be a timeshare pitch, given my experience at the Westin Lagunamar, so I had mentally prepared myself for the whole spiel prior to arrival.

The routing was a little wonky since the direct flight from Atlanta was not available on the days I was considering, so we had a second layover in Mexico City. Though I wasn’t able to fly on a Dreamliner as I had hoped, I was still able to give Aeromexico a shot.

The Club at ATL

Entrance to The Club

Cookies and fruit

Fruit infused water and chips

Popcorn and pretzels

Pasta and Pita

Salad Bar

With some time to kill upon arrival at Atlanta, we headed to Concourse F for our flight to Mexico City. Though there is a SkyClub, I opted instead to visit The Club (a member of PriorityPass). Unfortunately, since we were flying on a Sunday and it was before 12:30 PM we were not served any alcohol due to Georgia state law.

There were various cookies, chips, and breakfast items when I initially arrived, but they were in the process of setting out the lunch items.

ATL-MEX

Since the flight from Atlanta to Mexico City is a short three and a half hours, Delta opted for a 737. Unfortunately since it was using ground-based WiFi, it was only available while we were flying over the US.

Our Ride – B737

Upon boarding, we were offered orange juice, champagne, or mimosas as our pre-departure beverages. Since we were heading out on vacation, our choice was clear. 😉

Champagne!

Shortly after reaching cruising altitude, we were given our option for meals – chicken or vegetable lasagna. I wasn’t really feeling pasta, so I opted for the chicken. Expecting a single tray of food, I was quite surprised when we were given a multi-course meal instead!

Our lunch started with olive-oil crostini with what I think was cheese and candied sweet potato. Also present was a Caesar salad and Tiramisu.

Crostini with cheese and sweet potato

Caesar Salad

Grilled chicken entree

Tiramisu

Once our appetizers were done, the small plates were cleared and replaced with our entree. The sweet potatoes with our entree weren’t nearly as sweet as those with our appetizer (thankfully!), and the chicken wasn’t as dry as most airline meals.

Mexico City

Since this was my first time visiting the Mexico City airport I planned for a longer layover than normal – just over five hours. While it might have been a little unnecessary, I prefer to err on the side of caution for international connections when Customs are involved. Thankfully, it went fairly smoothly and we had some time to explore.

MEX-SJD

Our last flight of the day was on an Embraer ERJ-190 operated by Aeromexico Connect. Though the first row had substantial legroom, which we were quite grateful for, the presence of oxygen tanks in the overhead bins meant that we had to stow our bags a few rows back. Something to keep in mind!

Excellent legroom… terrible storageSecond Row for Comparison

The only snack available for this short flight was a nut medley (cashews, peanuts, sunflower seeds and so on).

Mixed Nuts

Overall, the flight was a smooth one. I was very surprised that we were asked to not have headphones on or use electronic equipment below 10,000 feet. I’m not sure if that is something that is unique to Aeromexico or Aeromexico Connect, but I can’t remember the last time I was asked to remove my headphones on a plane.